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The unguarded treasure trove

From Masud Hasan Khan
MYMENSINGH. May 6: The Shilpacharya Zainul Abedin Sangrahasala (museum), robbed of its 17 priceless works, now stands bare on the bank of the old Brahmaputra river 1n Mymensingh town.
Relatives of the Shilpacharya have appealed to the nation to help recover the valuable works of the genius while police prepare themselves for a vigorous hunt.
A group of armed robbers
us May ■W'^roke into the museum, located at a lonely corner In the hometown of Zainul Abedin, and left with 17 works in water colour. pen-Ink “rd hr--«h Thew included the iImmortalsflke the first and
third ones in the famous 'Famine' series, 'Prattkkhaye Ghate' (waiting at the river port), 'Steamer Ghat'. 'Veranda.' Hamberto.' Near the Nlagra Falla.' and the 'Goon tana in which oarsmen pull a country boat.
The art-looters reportedly tied the guard with a rope, gagged him and threatened to stab him before leaving with the pieces of art.
The two-storey museum building with its spacious premises looked almost desolate Tuesday when this correspondent arrived In the Shaheb Quarter area of the town.
Two policemen were found dozing in a sea of tranquillity. To the north was the once-mighty old Brahmaputra, the residence of the Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC) of the district on the south, and the District Judge and the Forest Officer residing In the neighbourhood of the museum on the west and the east respectively.
Two dampened galleries with its remaining 50 pieces of art of the Shtlpacharya were on the first floor of the building, now under lock and key.
When the caretaker of the museum switched on the lights of the galleries, loosely hanging cords severed from the robbed works formed uneven gaps in a Une pen and pencil sketches, charcoal works, water and oil paintings,
The Shtlpacharya will never be back to fill In.' said Muhammad Shawkat Hossain, the caretaker of the gallery of the museum for 17 years. Hossain had collected the shattered glass-covers and broken frames of the lost works as mementos.
D The museum, set up under U personal initiative of Zainul I Abedin, was opened by the then Vice President Syed Nazrul Islam on April 14. 1975.
The Shtlpacharya died on May 28 a year later. The lost works Included the best of those done between 1934 and 1970
"It is a well-planned robbery." said Altaf Hossain Mollah. the Superintendent of Police of Mymensingh district. "Circumstantial evidence shows that the robbers decamped with those for the big-money market."
He said that all exit points/ across the country were put/n alert immediately after th/ln cident to avert a possible smuggling out of Jine art pieces. An SP of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) from Dhaka was due in the town Wednesday to take up the matter. Mollah Informed.
The watchman of the museum was brought into custody as a suspect for Interrogation, the SP said adding "But the mystery-knot is yet to be untied."
"We are still bewildered," the ADC (General) of Mymensingh Md Abu Taher told The
Dally Star, "there are many things on earth you can replace with others . . but not the ones we've lost." The ADC lives adjacent to the museum. The Shaheb Quarter of Mymensingh town is the residential area for the shahebs' in the district administration. Each of the houses in this swanky zone employs three to four guards to ensure security to the district executives.
Almost all the district officials interviewed by this correspondent cited hopeless se curity arrangements as the cause of the robbery. Eight policemen were posted in the Sangrahasala but they were withdrawn in 1985 for unknown reasons, officials said.
Since thenj the treasure trove rcmatofg virtually unguarded sjmrt of having a single nlgbTguard The watchman had^mo weapon, not even a sjlA but only a torch. The /nearly 1.5 acre premises plunges into darkness at night. A low-power bulb barely lights a corner outside the building. The area Is infested with ven omous snakes and even more with venomous muggers in the river-side park.
The district officials held each other responsible for the Inadequate security of the mu seum.
Poor maintenance of the Sangrahasala was yet another point that Invited such Incidents. Officials said that there was no Independent fund to maintain the museum. The three employees of the museum — a caretaker, a watcher and a gardener — have had no
regular salaries since 1989. They were paid from Irregular' government grants, collections from tax on cinema tickets and money diverted from different funds under the district ad ministratlon.
A meeting of the 19 member Trustee Board of the museum on October 3. 1991 suggested Increased security ar rangements. The Director General of the National Museum Dr Md Ntzamuddin Ahmed attended the meeting chaired by the Mymensingh DC Muhammad Ashraf. The meeting requested the National Museum DG to send the government order already issued as revealed by the DG for ensuring security to the invaluable cultural asset. The order, however, has not yet arrived
The Trustee Board meeting also suggested a master-plan for the overall development of the museum and Installation of air conditioning and humidity control system to save the works of art from the onslaught of moisture. More lights for the museum premises also came in the discussion. But the decision was not implemented, official sources said.
Talking to The Dally Star. Malnul Abedin, the youngest son of the Shtlpacharya, ap pealed to the countrymen to help police recover the art pieces. He requested anyone having information of the robbed works to call telephone numbers 414 557, 400588 and 403919.
Awaml League chief and Leader of the Opposition in Parliament Sheikh Hasina in a statement Tuesday expressed her grave concern over the robbery. She demanded proper maintenance and security of this national asset
The price of the lost works of the Shtlpacharya quoted in the case filed with Mymensingh Police was estimated at about Taka 17 lakh. Relatives of Zainul Abedin, however, put the figure at more than Taka 50 lakh. .
Zx-
Whatever may the price,* this single incident points towards a more serious problem growing within the general psyche. People have little time to be interestested tn the finer things of life. They seemed to be least bothered about the lack of maintenance of the exiled works of Bangladesh's master painter and the quasl-scriousness of the administration about the national assets. The general feeling is almost like "Why so much fuss over the loss of a onion-thin piece of paper 7"